The Dodo Archive

The Sea Lions Of San Diego Do Not Want To Take A Selfie With You

It's not easy being a sea lion in La Jolla, California, the upscale district of San Diego with cliffs and rocks abutting the sea.

Videos taken over the Christmas holiday show hordes of people surrounding sea lions basking in the sun at La Jolla cove. The endless parade of gawkers included people taking selfies with the animals, and threatening to poke them.

Activists and marine-mammal scientists say such close encounters constitute harassment, a violation of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. And, they add, the harassment is not only tolerated, but actively encouraged by the city of San Diego and seaside business owners, who complain that the stench of animal feces is driving away customers.

On December 27, local activist Andrea Hahn posted a video on her Facebook page documenting the crowds, who came within one foot of the resting sea lions. "It never ceases to amaze me just how incredibly cruel the public can be as a whole as they gather for the holidays," Hahn wrote. "A Sea Lioness' hind flipper was actually trod roughly upon by a 10 year old girl."

The next day, Hahn posted another video and more commentary. "The persistent ugliness of the holiday crowds continued on into the 28th, as I spent 3 some hours filming the up-close and personal interactions the ever in need of a selfie public kept having," she wrote. "The pattern of behavior began to change as the children began to threaten the puppies and yearlings with threats of violence and the parents found solace and contentment in simply poking the resting animals."

A decade ago, the city erected a fence to prevent people from climbing down on the rocks above the water. With the humans gone, sea lions and cormorant birds occupied the space, just steps from some of the most upscale hotels and restaurants in California. Their waste emits foul odors that make some people vomit and drives away customers from places like La Valencia Hotel and George's at the Cove restaurant.

One year ago, those establishments and others, which had formed a group called Citizens for Odor Nuisance Abatement, sued the city over the disruption of their businesses. "It's been building up for years," Bryan Pease a lawyer who filed the suit, told ABC News at the time. "It's just really rancid," he said. "It's like foul anchovies. It just depends on what kind of fish they eat."

The lawsuit demanded that the city remove the fence, which would "allow for human foot traffic in the area and encourage the sea lions to congregate elsewhere," ABC reported. Within days, the city put a gate in the fence, allowing people to scramble onto the cliff and trample around the haul-out area favored by the sea lions. But that hasn't chased the animals away.

Meanwhile, over the past year, eight sea lions were found riddled with bullets on San Diego County beaches. Six of the shootings occurred in the last three months.

The City of San Diego, La Valencia Hotel and George's Restaurant did not respond to interview requests. And though the sea lions seem to tolerate the attention, that doesn't mean it's good for them.

"There are two types of harassment, both of which are illegal without a permit," Sharon Young, marine issues field director at the Humane Society of the U.S., told The Dodo. "Level A Harassment has the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild," she said. "Level B Harassment has the potential to disturb a marine mammal...by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering."

According to a webpage at the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is charged with enforcing the MMPA, viewing marine mammals must be conducted in a manner that does not harass them, such as "closely approaching, interacting, or attempting to interact with [marine mammals]. This includes attempting to swim with, pet, touch, or elicit a reaction from the animals." Violators face fines between $100 and $13,000.

Young believes the interactions, "could be seen as level B harassment, when an animal reacts to something you are doing, such as changing to an alerting posture, moving toward the person in an aggressive manner, awakening from a rest, going into the water, stopping nursing and so on."

"I believe continually disrupting their resting behavior - the reason that they are out on the rocks - is stressful as it denies them needed rest and, if they are forced back into the water, needed opportunities to thermoregulate," Young added.

Young has contacted the Fisheries Service about the problem, but so far the agency has taken no steps to address the issue. Jim Milbury, a Fisheries spokesman, said the videos had been sent to the agency's law enforcement division to determine if any harassment took place. He provided a link offering guidelines for observing seals and sea lions, which include warnings such as "do not approach" and "do not surround" the animals.

"In general, going up to an animal like that and poking them would be harassment," Milbury told The Dodo. "The thing that was kind of disturbing was the close proximity to the animals. They are sunning themselves, but mostly resting after getting out of the water."

And, Milbury cautioned, "these are wild animals; they can be vicious at times and they can bite. They do carry diseases, so if someone was bitten they would have to go through preemptive shots."

In one video, a sea lion acts aggressively toward one woman. "I worry that this situation will not end until someone is injured," Young said. "The city is not only turning a blind eye to the harassment of the sea lions, but it appears to be actively encouraging it without regard to the danger to the public."